diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index bbc1d43..7df7572 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -18,11 +18,9 @@ install: all
 	cp .version zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh $(SHARE_DIR)
 	cp COPYING.md README.md changelog.md $(DOC_DIR)
 	sed -e '1s/ .*//' -e '/^\[build-status-[a-z]*\]: /d' < README.md > $(DOC_DIR)/README.md
-	if [ x"true" = x"`git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2>/dev/null`" ]; then \
-		git rev-parse HEAD; \
-	else \
-		cat .revision-hash; \
-	fi > $(SHARE_DIR)/.revision-hash
+	if prefix=`git rev-parse --show-prefix 2>/dev/null` && [ x"$$prefix" = x ]; then \
+		git rev-parse HEAD > $(SHARE_DIR)/.revision-hash; \
+	fi
 	:
 # The [ -e ] check below is to because sh evaluates this with (the moral
 # equivalent of) NONOMATCH in effect, and highlighters/*.zsh has no matches.
diff --git a/changelog.md b/changelog.md
index 496b4a8..c9e55fb 100644
--- a/changelog.md
+++ b/changelog.md
@@ -73,6 +73,9 @@
 
 - Recognize `env` as a precommand (e.g., `env FOO=bar ls`)
 
+- Skip installing .revision-hash if not running `make install` from a git checkout.
+  [#723]
+
 # Changes in version 0.7.1
 
 - Remove out-of-date information from the 0.7.0 changelog.
diff --git a/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh b/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
index 6c95e8c..a74f766 100644
--- a/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
+++ b/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
@@ -40,12 +40,14 @@ builtin unalias -m '[^+]*'
 if true; then
   # $0 is reliable
   typeset -g ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_VERSION=$(<"${0:A:h}"/.version)
-  typeset -g ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REVISION=$(<"${0:A:h}"/.revision-hash)
-  if [[ $ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REVISION == \$Format:* ]]; then
-    # When running from a source tree without 'make install', $ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REVISION
-    # would be set to '$Format:%H$' literally.  That's an invalid value, and obtaining
-    # the valid value (via `git rev-parse HEAD`, as Makefile does) might be costly, so:
-    ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REVISION=HEAD
+  if [[ -f "${0:A:h}"/.revision-hash ]]; then
+    typeset -g ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REVISION=$(<"${0:A:h}"/.revision-hash)
+    if [[ $ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REVISION == \$Format:* ]]; then
+      # When running from a source tree without 'make install', $ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REVISION
+      # would be set to '$Format:%H$' literally.  That's an invalid value, and obtaining
+      # the valid value (via `git rev-parse HEAD`, as Makefile does) might be costly, so:
+      ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REVISION=HEAD
+    fi
   fi
 fi